Great sounding vocal harmonies

[Bill]

I’ve gone on about this before, but I’m still looking for an answer…I need a decent vocal harmoniser. As I see it the choice is:

1. Sing the harmonies yourself. This is the best route if you have a great voice and bags of natural ability. I do not fall into either category, I need help, so:
2. Melodyne. Top version too expensive. Uno will be out one day, but even then, it is all manual – Really I want some input from the software to invent some “intelligent” harmonies.
3. Akai Decabuddy – obsolete and unavailable now as far as I can tell. I tried it out in demo form a few years ago and it was OK. At least it came up with 2, 3 or 4 part harmonies pretty much automatically. If you mixed the backing vocals low enough it sounded reasonable. Still, not the answer to my prayers.
4. Yamaha Pitch Fix. Again, tried a demo once, not completely convinced but sort of OK. Quite expensive if you only need the harmonies rather than the autotune bit as well.
5. Leapfrog Rephrase. Trying out the demo again, this seems a good bet. You are able to convert audio to midi and work from there. Reasonably large changes in pitch still sound OK – I guess this is close to what I am after apart from the lack of intelligent automated harmonies.
6. TC Helicon Quintet/Voice Works/Voice One. This is the hardware that I drool over. I have never tried it out but the reviews and demo CDs sound very convincing. The prices seem to be £350 to £700 which is beyond what I can justify. If this is the only equipment which (a) produces convincing voice pitch shifting and (b) works out the harmony lines automatically, perhaps I have to save my pennies and go for it!

Am I missing anything? Can someone come up with the holy grail of vocal harmonies?

Bill

[dharmawan]

unless u make electronica sing em yourself.. or get someone to do the BV's for ya

[dharmawan]

for the same thread.. any tips on how to arrange vocal harmonies. other than doing it by ear. usually do the usual octave doubles and maybe fifth/fourth but listening to something like destinys child they are really tasty and more complex

[james0tucson]

for the same thread.. any tips on how to arrange vocal harmonies. other than doing it by ear. usually do the usual octave doubles and maybe fifth/fourth but listening to something like destinys child they are really tasty and more complex

Here's a hint: Pythagorean scale. That's responsible for the colour in lots of things, from Ladysmith Black Mambazo to the Bulgarian Womens' Chorus.

Getting singers who can do it without the cultural immersion, is another matter.

[Space Boy]

'Choir Boy'

http://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=89602

I'll have a new release (beyond V1.22) that will be available soon with further improved sound quality and processing options.

Check out a preview of the improved quality below:

• Original Vocal
• Transformed to a 4 part Choir with Formant correction (Improved quality - next release).

Note: The transformed sample is created using only the original sample and 'Choir Boy' under Midi control. No additional processing is applied.

[kovacs]

Wow...that was actually quite cool...

[RChler]

Here's a hint: Pythagorean scale. That's responsible for the colour in lots of things, from Ladysmith Black Mambazo to the Bulgarian Womens' Chorus.

Getting singers who can do it without the cultural immersion, is another matter.

you mean pentatonic scale, or not... ?

[dharmawan]

Here's a hint: Pythagorean scale. That's responsible for the colour in lots of things, from Ladysmith Black Mambazo to the Bulgarian Womens' Chorus.

Getting singers who can do it without the cultural immersion, is another matter.

what notes are there in the pythagorean scale? if u start from C for instance

[Space Boy]

Somewhat off-topic - 'Choir Boy'

[kovacs]

what notes are there in the pythagorean scale? if u start from C for instance

http://www.avatar.com.au/courses/PPofM/ ... ales3.html

[M'Snah]

5. Leapfrog Rephrase. Trying out the demo again, this seems a good bet. You are able to convert audio to midi and work from there. Reasonably large changes in pitch still sound OK – I guess this is close to what I am after apart from the lack of intelligent automated harmonies.

I vote for Rephrase.

I don't believe in automatically generated harmonies that sound realistic, e.g. you don't want added 4th or 5th all the time, you want the 2nd voice to move as well. This is a Rephrase demo, all based on 1 (one!) single sample from Zvon's Julie set...

[james0tucson]

Here's a hint: Pythagorean scale. That's responsible for the colour in lots of things, from Ladysmith Black Mambazo to the Bulgarian Womens' Chorus.

Getting singers who can do it without the cultural immersion, is another matter.

what notes are there in the pythagorean scale? if u start from C for instance

You're thinking in a Western / Well-Tempered context.

Listen to the Bulgarian Women's Chorus, or Adiemus, or Ladysmith.

http://www.ericweisstein.com/encycloped ... Scale.html

There are lots of other tuning systems other than the modern temperament, and many of them can sometimes give amazing results in various modes or harmonies, partly for physical reaons, partly for psychoacoustic properties, and partly because you might be looking for something different.

[RChler]

i know there are different tunings, but he spoke of a scale... of course, different tuning does a lot, but singers (good ones with feeling) often sing in natural harmonic tunings automaticly...

[megumizooloo]

Waves Ultrapitch meets in the middle between Melodyne and Choir Boy, runs about 150. Choir Boy sounds terrible.

[Space Boy]

Choir Boy sounds terrible.

Based on what? The V1.18 demo or the sample provided above (given that the input vocal isn't exactly clean or high fidelity).

Cheers.